Blogs from Austin, Texas, United States, North America - page 8

Music, it binds even the closest of friends together in an unbridled passion. You experience the joy of sound and looking over at your friend, you grab their hand and together you bask in the waves. South By South West, or simply known to the townfolk, trend-setters, hipsters, nerds, music lovers and music makers alike as "South By" is an annual devotion of a Texas city to sound and rhythm. Some people swarm to Austin to be part of the 'new', the 'fresh', the 'unheard', or the next big act or piece of technology. Lexi and I ended up there to see some long time friends and experience the festival and the city before their big move to San Francisco. When else would i be prepared to go to Texas out of pleasure I thought to ... read more

Leslie here: Now that Mom and Dad have braved the interstates, downpours and major traffic jams, they seem to be settling in nicely to their new Austin surroundings. I actually think they're having a lot of fun with the whole adventure. It's certainly not everyone who would pick up everything, pack it in a minivan and drive a couple of thousand miles to start a new life where they've never had one before. So I commend them for that. Like Dad told Debby the other day, "Sometimes you just need to start a new adventure." In your mid-70s. Across the country. Wow. So here they are and it's been fun having them around. Everyday we've been browsing neighborhoods and showing off our frequent haunts. When I asked Mom if she was going to continue to "blurb" ... read more

I had arrived, finally to the Promised Land. Alternatives as far as the eye can see. I was in... Austin, Texas… I have always thought of myself as a casual alternative. You know an individual that is different but not one that tries to stand out as the usual “Alternative”. I’m more your laid back alternative, A casual alternative. Austin is the live music venue of America and it was here I planned to see as many alternatives as possible. How could I go wrong when we are talking about musicians playing live around people who like music. It was around this point that during channel changes the Christian radio promo said “Y2Kfm – Positive alternative!” I was like ‘Geez even the Christians are getting in on the alternative act.’ I found it interesting how alternative ... read more

Because of some family business my plans changed somewhat. I had intended to visit Austin and then bounce around the hill country a bit but I ended up going to Austin and visiting my nephew for the evening, staying overnight, and then this morning driving back to Bryan. On the way to Austin I stopped in Bastrop at Discount Tires and had the two rear tires rebalanced and put to the front, and got two new tires for the rear. They were some LT 265/75R 16 M&S and pretty pricey at $209 each for a total of $418. Still I needed them so that was that. Now I can put that task behind me and move on. I left Bastrop on Hwy 71 heading into Austin and did OK on traffic till I turned north ... read more

So we picked up our rental car at New Orleans airport and began the long drive to Austin. It was actually cheaper than the three of us getting a bus which was great as it's much nicer to have a car. The drive was only 8 hours (I can't believe we now think 8 hours is a relatively short drive) so we were doing it in one day. The drive went fine, we stopped for lunch and was pretty uneventful, until we got pulled over for speeding. Bit of a fail - was just after the speed limit had changed - the interstate swaps and changes the speed limits all the time. Nevertheless, it was pretty nerve racking but luckily the US cop was pretty nice about it. Still a bit of a dent into James' ... read more